Rise of Equestria: Battle for Canterlot

Applejack opened her eyes with a pained grunt. The whole room shook jerking her fully awake. The throbbing in her skull reminded her of what had happened. The roof had exploded, and the blast knocked the farm mare out cold. When she got her eyes to focus she saw a white lump of armor laying against the central long-range comms console, the console had repeatedly been shot leaving large burned holes. Bigger than any holes Clone blasters left.

"Twenty-Five?" She asked getting her hooves under her. "Wake up partner..." She pleaded with dread in her gut like an icy fist. Gingerly shaking her head she saw the black scorch on his chest was more of a hole and her stomach flopped. She swayed on her hooves the smell of charred meat and hair touched her noise, and she retched having to turn her head. "Oh god Twenty-five" she choked out feeling the sob catch in her throat. The clone started out prickler then a pear, but the last day they'd gotten along fine as he taught her how to use the Comms. She looked back at the Dead clone realizing something.

This attack wasn't by one of the other races. Energy bolts like the Clones were the only thing that could do this much damage. Something new had joined their little war. War she paused at the word. Oh, gods, this was a war now. Today this attack ended trying to preventing one. She swallowed the sour taste in her mouth and took a breath. For some reason, that realization calmed her. People, Ponies died in wars that's normal. She couldn't hold on to that calm for long as the tears came back.

"But damn it why did it have to be normal!" She shouted bitterly. Something like a roar and chatter she couldn't understand silenced her. Her eyes fell on Twenty-Fives DC-15m. Part of her ordinance training jokingly requested by Fixer. But damn if she didn't take it to heart. She'd used her spare time to study the basics of the Clone arsenal. She had to chuckle dryly she'd even put in for range time with Fifty-Seven. "Celestia do I wish it was noon tomorrow right now." She whispered to herself as she gently nudged the sling off Twenty-Fives shoulder. "Then I might have a bucking idea how to shoot this thing." She grunted as her hoof touched the Clones hand to slide the rifle out of his stiff hands. Picking the gun up in her mouth to sling the strap over her neck.

She heard heavy footsteps too heavy to be Clone or X-Com. She jumped when three hunchbacked aliens with green armor and pinkish skin looked into her room. They looked at each other and one leveled a weird fin looking gun. Applejack dove for cover behind a chunk of concrete. She fiddled like mad with the rifle trying to find the safety. She pushed something, and the charge pack fell out. She fumbled to put it back in. She peeked over her wall seeing the Aliens weren't shooting at her. Maybe she had miss judged.

One threw a beeping green cone her way. "Nope completely hit the nail on the head!" she thought as she used the long rifle as a bat to knock it back at them. The grenade went off in a green cloud of plasma that shook the room. The shockwave knocked the air out of her chest. Nothing immediately shot back, so she slid her back against the wall and pushed the pack back in. She flipped the only other switch she saw, and all the lights on the gun blinked out.

"Oh pears!" she cursed. When a line of green plasma whizzed over her head, she undid her mistake and propped the business end of the rifle on the wall seeing the three trying to get back up from the grenade. She tried to pull the trigger, but Clone weapons were not built for hooves. She dived back behind the cover "Buck ME!" she loudly cursed as she spun the rifle and with one swift kick broke the trigger guard off. She heard running feet, and she fell on her back as one of the creatures tried to swipe at her with the saw blade on its gun. Using both front legs, she aimed and shot it in the face.

Seeing it was still standing, she growled and shot it again till it fell to the floor. She heard a growl from the other two and rolled till she laid on her side with a view of the other aliens. She held the Trigger and Blue fire spewed from the end almost randomly hitting walls and floor. Her eyes unfocused as tears fell down her cheeks. When the blaster clicked empty, she flinched. Finally seeing everything was dead and she'd been hitting the wall for a while now. Her throat hurt, and she realized she'd been yelling. She slumped breathing heavy letting the rifle dip and touch its smoking barrel to the floor. She looked at the smoking corpse of whatever it was that she'd killed. It's yellow eyes still glowed like it was merely sleeping. She had to grimace at the thought.

She heard more footsteps coming to her door, and she bolted up propping the blaster on the concrete chunk. Something wearing Bronze strips as armor with three blue lines for eyes stepped into view, and they looked at each other. Applejack's heart thumped in her ears, and she pulled the trigger. The Bronze man flinched at the click of the empty gun. Fear filled her system, and she let her eyes flick to the Det in Twenty-Fives hand. She dove for it not hearing the man shout "Wait!" over the pumping of blood in her ears. Suddenly the whole world went blue, and a cold sensation washed over her. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. The Det was mere inches from her hoof yet felt like miles away. She squeezed her eyes shut even that felt slow. A few tears fell down her cheek when she opened her eyes and saw she was only a few centimeters closer to where she was before. Something was wrong.

She saw motion out of the corner of her eye. She realized the man was walking normal speed and she was, in fact, going super slow. He crouched in front of her. "This is where I die" went through her head when the blue lines shifted, and the front part of what she now realized was a fancy helmet slid back to reveal a greying middle-aged human. He held out an X-Com ID badge, Isaac Clarke, Engineering. She relaxed feeling the cold fading around her. He put out a hand to stop her from plowing head first into her friend's corpse.

When time returned to normal, she fell into his arm. Feeling queasy from the sudden shift. "Woah nelly" She tried to shake off the feeling in head.

"You ok?" he asked sounding reasonable enough, and she nodded.

"Sorry for almost chucking a Det at your face." She apologized, Isaac looked back at the exploded hallway littered with dead aliens.

"Judging by the hall, I say you'd be forgiven for knee jerking." He assured as he stood back up he hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "Got a barricaded room a hall down you'll be safe there." He offered, and she nodded.

"Alright, Tinman just let me grab something." She said before turning back towards Twenty-Five. She had to swallow as she eyed his belt and felt guilty. Isaac stood guard "survive now, Mourn later." She whispered to herself as she undid his utility belt and the Holster with his pistol still in it. It had two charge packs for the rifle and another thermal Det hanging on the left side. She looked ridiculous as she laid on her back trying to close it around her barrel with her hooves. Isaac offered a hand, but she shot him down and got it clasped. It slid to rest on her haunches as she rolled over to stand. The last step was adjusting the sling on the rifle so it didn't drag and AJ was ready to move forward. Turning to look into the T-shaped visor one last time she nodded. "Thank you Twenty-Five I'll plant the biggest tree for ya." Approaching Issac, they left the scene behind.